Really, with all the folks here who grow hydrangeas, no one can comment on my post?

Laceyvail, I understand your frustration. It does seem like there’s a dwindling number of participants on the GW discussion forums, at least those that I follow. I don’t know if it is a seasonal thing or long-term trend, but it would be interesting to see participation numbers over the past few years.

My experience is with H. arborescens, so I don’t feel comfortable offering a suggestion. Have you posted in the Hydrangea forum?

Well, I'm still here but I have no help to offer since I don't have any Hydrangeas, except a single mophead I got as a gift. And that grows itself.

I have a Quick Fire in the back of garden that I don't ever prune. It does just fine and look nice. About 6-7' tall now.

laceyvail, I'm new to hydrangeas, but found this. Hope it helps!

gawdinfever

pennlake, do you clip off the previous year's blooms?

TBH, it IS winter and gardening questions and participation on the forums are at a low seasonal ebb :-)

I am not of much help as although I love and grow a lot of hydrangeas, my more shady gardens have never lent themselves to growing paniculatas but rather macs, serrulatas or oakleafs. Those that do grow panicles here do remove the spent flowers when they start to look funky and some cut back and some do not. Depends on the cultivar and the siting. So really your choice!!

Here in MN it seems like we get enough snow and wind that most of the flower heads snap off over the winter on plants out in the open. So no, most years I don't cut the flowers off any of my panicles with one exeption which is up again the NE corner of the house. Perhaps sheltered enough to preserve the old flowers. When I do cut the flowers off in March, I just use a battery-powered hedge shears and it's over in a jiffy. No foo-foo pruning.

I have ’Little Quick Fire’ and I have never pruned it. It does very well.

tj

Quick Fire does have the potential to grow fairly large over time. I planted a grouping of 3 QF's for the neighbors around 2007/08 - the photo below (7/15/21) is the most recent I have of them, with a 6' ladder for scale. These have never been pruned to any extent. IME, most of the flower heads remain intact thru the winter - the second photo shows one of the flower heads with a light glaze of ice this past winter (2/17/23)

Thanks, Dave. Lovely pics. And that's exactly what I would want with one of them. Perfect.

I don't have experience with Quick Fire, but I do grow Pinky Winky. I used to cut it back yearly but no longer do a hard prune. I didn't find that hard pruning did anything for the hydrangea. Now, I just remove crossing branches and do some shaping. I do the pruning in early spring.

Great, more confirmation that I don't need to cut it back.